Down the Braided River: My Journey as a Deaf Refugee
A Memoir
The book will be launched in the late fall of 2026.
Watch for updates!
Forced to flee with his family from Bhutan at the age of seven, Bhawani grew up in a refugee camp in Nepal where he remained for two decades until his family was resettled in New Hampshire. Bhawani is repeatedly tested by trauma and hardship. In New Hampshire, he faced additional challenges to bridge the Bhutanese, Nepali, American, hearing, and Deaf cultures and languages to help himself and other Deaf refugees succeed.
Bhawani takes us on his remarkable journey DOWN THE BRAIDED RIVER, through ethnic cleansing, flood, fire, earthquake, hunger, hearing loss, language deprivation, and discrimination, seeing through his eyes the intersections of the cultures of Bhutan, Nepal, and America, hearing and Deaf. He shows us the struggles of a refugee with a disability, of being Deaf in a hearing world, and in particular the magnified obstacles faced by those who are refugees AND Deaf.
UNHCR’s 2024 Global Report estimates there are 117.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, including 36.4 million refugees. Already a crisis, this number is expected to rise due to climate change and global conflict. Doubly marginalized refugees with disabilities are at exceptionally high risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse, and their needs are often overlooked or dismissed during the protection and resettlement process. The stories of Deaf refugees are rarely told due to language and cultural barriers.
Bhawani's preferred languages for effective communication are Nepali and American Sign Languages. With the help of generous volunteer interpreters, Bhawani is telling his story in ASL, interpreted into English, to writer Julia Freeman-Woolpert, in person and via recorded zoom. Bhawani's friends and family are adding their knowledge and memories of events.
